


Making Conexions

by zafiro



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Awesome Darcy Lewis, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Darcy Lewis Conquers the World, Darcy Lewis's Taser, Darcy adopts Hydra goons, Darcy gets minions, Darcy gives emotional hugs all around, Darcy takes care of people, Gen, Hydra (Marvel), Hydra kidnappes Darcy, Hydra needs a hug, Protective Bucky Barnes, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, WinterShock - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-04-27 09:43:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 21,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5043466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zafiro/pseuds/zafiro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Politics, is always good to make connections. Or: The one where Hydra kidnapes Darcy and she adopts Hydra and becomes the Dark Lord with a nose and awesome curves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Making Conexions

Or:

"The one where Hydra kidnappes Darcy and she adops Hydra and becomes the Dark Lord with a nose and awesome curves"

* * *

 

1

 

Darcy Lewis has a degree in Political sciences and is working on her master, she makes the journals articles for Dr. Jane Foster, she has one older and two younger brothers, her father is a former marine with his own business who taught her to always have pride and confidence in herself, her mother is a housewife who installed in her children good sense and good cheer.

Her father always said that she got her temper from her mother, her mother always said she got her adventurous and reckless nature from her father; they both were right in a sense, every children after all is a result of both their parents, but every child has a little _something_ that makes them themselves.

It's that something that saves Darcy when she is taken by Hydra and it's that something that compels her to be something more for all those broken people that seem to be permanently lost.

As everyone say: "You sometimes think you want to disappear, but all you really want is to be _found_ "

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Sorry about my bad english. If you see anything weird don't doubt to let me know.


	2. Chapter 2

2

 

They come for her an evening when she is out shopping, she exits the store with two heavy bags full of pop-tarts (and other things but mostly pop-tarts) and doesn't have enough time to completly take her taser from her bag before the three of them completly overwhelm her, she kicks one in the nuts and breaks someone's nose with an aimless punch.

In the background she can only hear a distant voice that says "Hail, Hydra!", she has enough time to think "Fuuuuuck..." before the chloroform completly shuts down her world.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not all the chapters will be so short, I promise.


	3. Chapter 3

3

 

She wakes up dizzy and thirsty, all alone in a tiny cell. A few hours later they come to ask questions.

They want to know all about Thor, who he is, why he came, what does he want, will he come back?

About Jane and her research they want to know if she can make portals and when could she make them?

She talks, but talks a lot and in extreme detail about senselees things, talks so much in circles (There is a reason she is studiyng a Master in Political Science, _thank you_ _very much_ ) that she is mighty sure that by the end of the interrogation the dizzy ones are the Hydra goons.

They leave and later a young Hydra goon comes, he is blond and reminds her of Thor and he gives her a suspicious looking sandwich with a bottle of water and she smiles and thanks him, he looks adorably confused, mutters incomprehensible words for a few seconds and leaves.

Then, Darcy thinks…

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN


	4. Chapter 4

 

4

 

Again, they come.

Again they ask, she answers in a lengthy way.

She knows this might annoy them, and she is sure she wouldn't like 'others' methods of interrogation.

She is not _Stark_ , she is not going to escape her captors in a blaze of fiery rage with a battle suit built by herself, she is Darcy Lewis, and if there is something she is good at it's making 'political conexions', or as her mother would say since her daughter was five and was the most sought after child to play with in kindergarten: _making friends_.

The thing about politics is that is not a 'pay it forward' kind of thing, it's a favour by favour, a tit for tat, an eye for an eye and a very long game, it can get downright nasty and create enemies that last lifetimes or it can create alliances that built empires or destroy them.

A few years ago Darcy might have mentioned to her friends in Administration that she wanted to finish her degree earlier than most and they might have helped her arrange her schedule and advance a few classes and she might have passed some juicy rumors about a teacher and her student, and then she might have hooked up a dreamy guy in the Organic Chemistry Department (partys are always good to meet new friends from all differents circles) with a girl in Social Services at her College and then Darcy might have mentioned that she wanted a last relaxing period to be able to write her thesis and an internship away from home and the girl in Social (extremely happy with her new boyfriend) might have separated for her one with a Dr. J. Foster that needed an assistant in New Mexico (at the phone call Dr. Foster say she'll call tomorrow with a 'final answer' but Darcy knows she'll get the job, she is the _only_ applicant after all) and she might have made more friends in New Mexico, with townspeople, Doctors of Science and the God of Thunder and landed in trouble with a Secret Security Agency and a Secret Terrorist (long tought dead) Agency.

She has a plan, she is going to befriend the _life_ out of this guys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN


	5. Chapter 5

5

 

The blond goon comes again bringing more of the tasteless food, he's obviously a rookie for they are always the ones to be given the most boring tasks; she smiles at him and makes a dry remark about prison and hospital food being the same everywhere, he doesn't say anything but the corner of his mouth moves a little and he doesn't leave inmediatly so Darcy keeps talking with emotion, smiling widely, making faces and moving her arms for emphasis, she talks about her eternal sucky luck for always being right there at the wrong moment (like that time in a bathroom high school when those older girls offered her a cigarrete and a lighter and how that teacher had entered at the moment when she was cluelessly holding the incriminating items in her hands and got a detention for it or that time when she had decided to walk to school with her science project and an unexpected 'huracan" had hit her city, "it came from nowhere I swear!!"), how she didn't want to _die_ for only six science credits (they should have at least been 'forty') and "she had almost 'finished' her _thesis_ damn it! How come these things didn't happen to those annoying trashy cheerleaders?"

When she looks again the guy is nowhere to be seen but she knows he had stayed for most of her rant.

Like a political shark detecting blood, she smells _opportunities_ in the air.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN


	6. Chapter 6

 

 

6

 

 

The days pass, they come asking questions one day, leave her alone two days, they come again, they leave again.

They make the routine of 'Good cop, Bad cop' and 'Bad cop and Terrifying cop', there are drugs and bright lights, and water and electric shocks, but no matter how many questions they ask they finally seem to be getting the clue that she really doesn't _know_ anything relevant that could help them.

Once, they send a girl her age, all soft looking, full of strained smiles and simpathetic looks, and Darcy breathes, lets down all her shields, smiles and talks animatedly with the girl who in turn relaxes around her (and after a while seems to forget why she is talking with her), a couple of hours pass and suddendly the girl gives a start and realizes that she has told Darcy many things that she didn't intend to say.

 

* * *

 

The funny thing about human nature, ingrated very deep in our bones and minds, inherited from our ancestors of old, is that we are descendants from animals. Animals that can smell fear and truth when presented to them. And so, when one speeks with true honesty and kindness something inside of every human is capable to recognize the sincerity of the gesture and respond in kind.

With people who has had very little of such things directed at them is a little confusing and hard to deal with their primary instinctic reaction to respond enthusiastically in kind and _cling_ to the very source.

 

(And to be honest, if you are part of an organization whose final goal is to _rule_ the world, you obviously were ' **not** ' hugged enough as a child.)

 

* * *

 

And so, Darcy puts her arm in Marie's tense shoulder, who was just telling her about the most recent art piece her sister had drawn in her old grandmother's shitty apartment walls and looks her right in the eyes and promise her to not breath a word about anything they have talked.

"I have two little brothers, you see" she tells her "I know what it is to want to do anything for them"

And so, Marie relaxes under her, leans a little in the half-embrace and breaths a soft yet strong _thank you_ before departing without another word.

 

Darcy smiles, glad of having excelent hearing.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN


	7. Chapter 7

 7

 

She keeps working on the blond guy at every meal time, it goes like this:

On day three, she is caught trying to stand in her hands and failing. She gets a snort.

On day five, she is dancing a clumsy vals on a space of 1x1 meters and tries to convince the guy that 'that is totally the way the dance goes'. She gets an eyeroll.

On day eight (Is really eight or nine? She isn't sure), she feels a little light headed for whatever they put on her but makes a valiant effort when the guy arrives and ask her how she feels. She vomits in his shoes and apologizes. He later returns with some contraband pills that maker feel a little better. She counts it as a win.

On day… ten?, eleven?, she keeps singing Lion King songs all trough the day. She gets a little smile at noon.

That evening, the guy enters and (as she is resting next to the bars bored out of her life missing her beautiful ipod) she begins singing with a decayed sad voice.

" _Nobody knows the trouble I've seen… Nobody knows my sorrow…"_

"Oh, Darcy, do lighten up" he says and startles a delighted laugh out of her that in turn makes him smile at her. Even he seems surprised by his own reaction. 

"Oh sweet Disney! Uniting the world since inmemorables times!"

That day he stays a little bit and talks about old Disney movies.

Not the new ones, because apparently Hydra is super evil and doesn't let their minions that live in their compounds watch television, movies, or even use the internet unless they work in the Department of Intelligence!

Darcy thinks it's a sad and horrible life, and that it goes against every international law of Human Rights and says so to her new friend. He doesn't give an opinion.

On day… whatever, two days after the Disney talk, he just… handes her the food, sits at the stone floor, says his name is Nicolá, talks about his life (twenty six, orphan, german, forcefuly collected from the streets ten years ago to serve a higher unknown proupose, after a while, he stopped struggling and just accepted that he couldn't leave) and promises to try to help her stay alive.

She smiles gratefully, flattered that he had chosen her to listen to his history even as brief as he tells it and then she talks about her life in return.

About the days her father was in service, how he taught her brothers and her to fight, how he gave her a taser when she went to her internship in New Mexico, how her brothers always picked on her when they were little (and she learned to sass, curse and sarcasm better than many out there) and still gave trouble to anyone who _dared_ to talk bad to her. Of her mother, who always made time each day to play with them, helped them paint, make gingerbread houses and cookies, or forts of pillows and bed sheets. And about all those family dinners on Christmas that were full of hugs, hearsays, cousins getting in trouble, gifts and red punch that always got spiked with alcohol thanks to her greatuncle Robert.

She talks wistfully about those Halcyon days and feels Nicolá completely relaxing next to her, she smiles at him and begins another story.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: In case you were wondering, yes, that was a Lion King reference, when Zazu is singing and Scar asks him to sing something else.


	8. Chapter 8

* * *

 

8

 

 

It takes her almost two 'whole' weeks to befriend the guy, but it is worth it the end because apparently Nicolá is the one who spreads the word about a funny girl in the cells to the other rookies in the base, as one fifteen year old Aleksei tells her on a night watch a few days later.

He is one of the guards that makes rounds at night in her side of the base, the Block number 7 of 42 more blocks, his companion and friend is Seitan, a thirty one year old dark skined man that talks little english and comes from a country with a weird name that Darcy forgets as soon as she hears it and only knows it has a letter 'k' somewhere in there.

Aleksei tells her about his father, a man who had left home when he decided he wanted to keep living the life and didn't need a family to retain him, about his mother who became a prostitute (falling with drugs, alcohol and mafia) to feed her three children but later decided she too didn't need them and left their little apartment with her new boyfriend.

He talks a little about those years trying to fend by themselves but doesn't say much and Darcy can understand not wanting to remember those times.

Aleksei tells how his older sister became a prostitute like their mother and with a little cash send him and Reina (two years older than him) on their way, claiming her new employer didn't like children near the job. And so, two years later they had heard word on the street about a place that gave you food and a roof if only you could be loyal and do some jobs for them. And that was how he and his sister (a cook in the Cafeteria because of her weak constitution) came to be part of Hydra.

 

* * *

Seitan only says in broken english about the lesser of two evils, says he prefers to live and die for a cause than live a slave for all his life.

* * *

 

While the days and sessions of interrogations become less frecuent the visits to her cell grow exponentially as the days pass, they grow so much that before she knows it half the Hydra base seems to become a permanent fixture outside her tiny cell in the otherwise abandoned block.

She meets Maria, who works in Cleaning and dreams of one day go to the Opera; Agnes, a techie who would one day like to buy a Mac for herself; Roland, who named himself after The Song of Roland because he always lived on the street and couldn't remember his name but loved that story; Dr. Landowsky, who refuses to give his first name but lets slip he has a cat named Yori at home; Eric, an accountant whose gambling father's debt fell on his shoulder and working for an obscure terrorist organization was the only protection he could find.

She meets Marcel one afternoon, who lives for adventure and the spikes of adrenaline he gets with the job; Agent Chasen, who is some kind of hunter of others Agents of any kind and says "'should he have to kill her he'll give her a day of advantage"; Chasen is dragged to meet her by Emma, another techie who seems to be his only friend (insists he is only rough around the edges) and would like to one day be able to keep one of her plants alive for years instead of only weeks.

One night she gets to know the soft spoken Gabriele, who's husband used to hit her quite brutally till she was saved by a Hydra agent when an operation went south and the man had to hide in her home and gave her husband the beating of his life and took her and gave her a new life (Darcy can spot the red tint in her cheeks and hopes the appreciation is mutual).

Another woman she meets is Dana, a Base security guard who has a killer fashion sense (and Darcy instantly _loves_ those beatiful sleak black boots she is wearing) and whose favorite color is Periwinkle; Jhon, who couldn't find a job anywhere and gave up on humanity for some things he is not willing to divulge; Fred, who loves Paulaner Weib-something beer and laughs at her when she can't pronounce the name and promises to try and get her one so she can try it and realize how superior german beer is.

She meets almost everyone who can speak a spot of english (and some who speak nothing at all but still make the effort with a friend to translate for them) because for every person that stops innocently next to her cell and strikes a conversation, a friend is brought the next day, and the next, and then they bring their boyfriends, girlfriends, their roommates or team partners.

 

* * *

The ones she has yet to meet are of course the Heads of Departments, Supervisors or Commanders or _'Special'_ Hydra Agents (she suppouses it must be the villian form of superheroes or mutants); those, her new friends know how to avoid like the _plague._

* * *

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Just trying to give the reality that Hydra agents are people too.


	9. Chapter 9

* * *

 

 

9

 

Her Hydra friends begin giving her things, initially they are small, easily hidden, a thootbrush, paste, an extra blanket, a different pair of clothes and shoes, a brush and a little cheap bottle of hand cream. It becomes easier to keep the things hidden when she notices it has been almost three weeks and a few days since people stopped coming to interrogate her, she calculates almost two months since she's been taken; fortunately they have yet to hurt her too much. She will probably always be a little mentally scared but she thanks God there hadn't been any knifes and sends her thanks to her new Hydra friends because she is pretty sure the 'sessions' decreased a few days after she began to talk to them and stopped completly some days later.

She has never been so fucking _glad_ about her ability to make friends.

Then, the things they bring her become more bigger.

She mentions to Marlene how she misses sugar and Aleksei arrives with a little cake from Reina, and her daily food becomes infinitly better tought not as good as what she could eat before, she recons is because a lack of ingredients than any fault in the chef.

Jameson in Armament Development ask her one day about the songs she is always singing, she talks at lenght about her favorites artists, generes and songs and days later sends one of her assistants, with her greatly beloved ipod and new earphones.

He is tirtheen year old little Mikhail who apparently is some kind of sandy blonde haired little genious and was bought (Yes! Bought! With fucking filthy money!) from an orphanage in a little rural city to the West of Russia. And they hadn't even paid much according to the boy, "only like one hundred american dollars" he tells her. And her heart clenches a little bit because while she knows these things still happen around the world he is the youngest she has ever met, in here and at home, who has gone through a thing like that.

 

* * *

 

But he is not the only one, she realizes, of all the Hydra operatives who have talked to her, she can't remember a single one of them that gave her the impression of having grown up in a home with a white fence, loving parents, 1.5 siblings and a dog.

The _fucking_ world _sucks_.

 

* * *

 

 

She doesn't wanna think more about that when she has company so she concentrates on her loveable piece of technology that has been apart from her loving embrace far too long for her comfort.

"Aww, come to mamma!" She croons and hugs her precious.

Mikhail eyes her wearly but warms up to her when she convinces him to listen with her to some of the most famous old rock songs. The next day he returns to hear more and brings with him her charger and a metal cube of about one foot that he says is a battery so she can charge her ipod.

Later, when they have talked about many inane things, she gathers a little of courage and asks him what he thinks of being part of Hydra now instead of being in the orphanage.

Mikhail remains a little indifferent.

"There is" he says "not much difference between my old life and this. At least they give me more food and they teach me things. At Saint Agnes my only future was to life…"

"It's 'live' "she tells him. Jameson has been teaching him english on their free time since some ten months ago but he still stumbles in some of the words.

"Always knew my future was to live on the streets or become part of Mafia when orphanage say _Goodbye_ to me. It is not the best of lives, lifes, but it is better than that which I had" he continues softly.

"I guess something is better than nothing" she says, he nods at her words and stops when he sees her lift her right index finger "But, the best will _always_ be better than something"

He seems to contemplate her words and says something in russian that Darcy doesn't understand but the tone he uses is one she knows, he sounds helpful and for her it is enough.

She smiles brilliantly at him.

 

* * *

 

Old Victor from mainteinance arrives one day with a bed (much better than the one in her cell) and takes the old one to some other place.

Hedwig, with her peculiar blonde almost white hair brings new bedsheets and a fluffy pillow.

Fourty-two year old Gerald, the techie in charge of repairs and one of the few allowed out of the base gets her a book from one of her beloved fantasy authors and thirty-something-old Sonja, one of the agents, gives to a wide eyed Darcy a pretty shiny pair of knifes and promises to teach her one day.

And so many, many more keep coming. 

Some times just to talk or trade little things in her cell for new ones. 

The fact is that they come and she feels grateful for not being alone. She has never been good at being alone.

 

* * *

 

But when the long black haired agent Pyetr comes with her " _phone_ " back and her bag filled with almost all her things minus her taser she just _**HAS**_ to ask.

"Pyetr" she says to the guy "It's not that I don't appreciate all you guys have done for me, but, won't you lot get in trouble with all these things you guys keep bringing here? I mean, I am a prisioner, one day they might remember that I'm here and keep up with the interrogations"

She does 'not' shudder.

Not a little bit.

The guy gives her a bland smile that looks mischevious on his face and she is suddendly reminded of Agent-ipod-thief-I-know-better-about-everything-than-the-lot-of-you-combined from New Mexico. Darcy can't get the idea out of her head that 'this' is what a younger Agent Coulson would have looked like in the prime of his life.

Pyetr nears towards the cell door and she too nears towards him to hear better.

"Only if they know" he says, trying to contain a laugh, his english is rough and his russian accent is very distinguishable "The _High_ Reich of Hydra does not come to the central offices as often as others might think, they preffer to be near when the action ocurrs or when there are interesting things happening. The order to search and detain goes to one branch and they _do_ and then the package, meaning you, and the order to 'ask' comes to us and we _do_. But when we say is _over_ and the matter is closed with no new information they don't ask to _see_ the body or wonder what happens to it" her eyes widen and Darcy contains a tremble, somethings tells her she can not show weakness in here, right know, not in front of this guy

"So, in a few days when a new 'head of the monster' joins the fold whose name _conveniently_ does _not_ figure on any prior report, well, it won't even be a coincidence because there won't be 'any' doubt about the legitimity of it all".

 

The guy leaves as fresh as a cucumber.

 

 

Darcy is left in her tiny cell, gaping and inhert, like a dead astonished fish.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I've seen some authors have Darcy refer to Coulson as Agent-ipod-thief. I think it's cool, even if I can't remember who authors have done it. If any of you read it, this is me giving you the rights of it.


	10. Chapter 10

* * *

 

10

 

 

They come for her one evening. She is listening to Muse's Starlight, singing softly parts of the lyrics when she hears footsteps in the hallway and turns her head to see Marie approching, her dark hair neatly arrenged in a bun, flanked by Fred, who had taken to bring her the ocassional beer to share and comment upon, always with a smile on place, and a blonde haired man with a square jaw and big muscles she doesn't recognizes. The three of them are wearing the dark Hydra uniform minus the helmet that many of the operatives normally use.

They seem to walk with a clear propouse and since she knows she is the only one in the cell block her heart starts to beat much faster and she feels herself lose a bit of color; but she steels her spine and stands up to meet head on whatever is coming.

Fred's little smile widens, Marie doesn't change expressions and the blonde guy rises an eyebrow.

They stop in front of her cell and Fred opens the door.

 

"Lewis, you have been chosen" says Marie with an even voice that wouldn't be amiss in an office secretary "To be part of Inmmortal Hydra. You shall become part of the body of the monster and will serve none but the master. From this day forth you will be part of us, your companions will be your new family and this base your new home. You will be assignated to assist in the science department and will move to the appartment block. You will also be expected to learn german in the span of a few months and remain on the base until further notice. Failure to comply will not be tolerated. Do gather your things, Fred and Schwarzer Hund will help you to your new room, someone will be sent to show you around and where to report tomorrow."

 

Marie says something in german at her two companions, turns around, gives her a wink and a smile and returns where she came from.

Barely, Darcy keeps herself from opening her mouth.

She understands this is the only way to keep her alive; the realistic part of her knows that even if some of her Hydra friends managed to take her out of the base she is fairly sure she is somewhere on Europe and now regrets having copied so much of her French homework at school because she can't even remember the simplest of sentences. She would be uselees out there.

Apparently, she will now be part of a long thougth dead nazi terrorist organization.

'We'll see about that' she thinks, mentally scoffing to herself.

 

"So… what does Schuarz hond means?" She asks them while begining to gather her things in the almost blindly white bedsheet of her bed, Yuri from mainteinance had came around the day before to wash them. She takes almost everything in a few seconds, it's not like she has many things.

 

The blonde man cringes a little at her mispronuntation, making Fred smile.

 

"Welcome to Hydra, Darcy Lewis. It's a codename, like your Captain America" answers Fred "It means black dog, sometimes they call him mad dog too. Unfourtantly, his name is a mispronuntation, his last name is Hundt with a 't' at the end as he is the son of Friedrich Hundt, a known assosiate in certain circles"

"Oh" says Darcy while eyeing her toothbrush, thinking of leaving it or taking it with her. Would someone give her a new one if she asks?

"So people took to calling you that to difference between your dad and you? Still, is a kickass name, you could have ended with an enterly horrifying one dude. And hey, is like the Black Widow codename, and she is awesomely scary!"

 

 

She decides to keep the toothbrush till they give her a new one, she doesn't think an evil organization like Hydra could ever have a decent dental program.

 

 

"Did you ever met THE Black Widow?" Darcy turns, throwing her theet cleaning tool on her 'pack' and closing it with two quick knots. She signals to the bundle and the blonde hurriedly enters, carries it outside the cell with little effort on his part waiting anxiously for her answer as she slowly exits what has been her house for the last few weeks (privatetly, she wonders about the strangeness of being on the other side of the bars).

 

Fred makes a "follow me" gesture with his hand and they begin to walk behind him trying to keep up in the long corridors of the empty cells block.

 

"Did I ever!" She says, smiling at the guy. "I met her just a couple of times, but men, they were certaintly memorable! She is a killer lady, she is like that person you see and think 'Gods, I want to be her when I grow up' "

"But you are…"

"Yes, I know I am grown up Schuar Hund, no need to remind me"

"It is Schwarzer Hund"

"That's what I said. Natasha, she is great, really. It's like, she can see the world in an enterily different manner and then she makes a deadly dance through all of it with a ballerina's quite grace"

"My father used to tell me histories, she began quite young and even then she excelled in all of her diligences"

"Your father admired her work?"

"Oh, yes. He was quite taken, said she remained him of _mathiuska_ , of mother. He loved her quite dearly, never sought another's company after she passed out"

"You miss him" it was a statement. She could see it in his posture and his voice.

 

He blinked, she had probably startled him, she tended to do that to people when they realized she could notice things many did not, but like a good little spy he didn't even faltered in his steps.

 

"Yes, quite a bit. That is the danger of this kind of profession, you can be gone unexpectady and there is noone to blame, is just how things are. He didn't want this life for me" he said.

"I doubt any parent would"

"Still, he trained me anyway, in everything he could. When he died, it's not like I really needed the money, he left me quite a sum, I guess I just wanted to use that which he taught me…"

"Using what he taught you I imagine it would feel like a part of him would constantly be with you" He doesn't close off his expression, his wide blue eyes don't leave her as his face soften.

"Do you, miss someone?" He asks, an obvious tactic to change the course of the conversation. She follows his lead.

"Everyone" she says, making a face and waiving her arms, as if with that gesture she could wave away the sad atmosphere "My parents, my brothers, my friends, even the guy I used to nod at in the convenience store near Jane's Science Lab"

"She is the one they caught you for?"

"Yeah. And I supousse because of Thor too, for all that mess with the Dark Elves and the portals. I was her intern in New Mexico, but I am a Political Science student so everything she does it goes way over my head, I was just the gofer in the group. You lot would have had more luck with Ian, he's the science geek, I guess I was the easier target"

 

 

Ian would really have been an easier target than her, a fighter he is not. He probably wouldn't even had needed an interrogation to begin spilling the beans. On second thought, maybe it was better they had taken her, the world is probably much safer that way.

 

 

"I met her when I applied to be her intern in New Mexico, then Thor arrived, became her boyfriend, and well, I guess you know what happened next, with the alien destructive robot, the fucking alien invasion in Manhattan and the next alien invasion of elves of all things. Sweet Thor! A lot of things have happened since New Mexico. Who would have tought that going to New Mexico would result in meeting real _aliens_? That's pretty neat!"

 

The man smiles at her and asks her if she at least had fun.

 

"Actually, I did. And I miss them. Thor is like the sweet brother I never had, mine are shitty little things, the rascals. And Jane is that cool absent minded sister that can ran over a guy one day and focus on her work the next without a drop of guilt"

 

The blonde guy eyes her weirdly but makes no comment. They are walking in the hallways of the base now, passing people that go on their own way, many are wearing the standar suits or lab coats, some a weird dark green uniform and very few are wearing normal cothes. The air is much more colder in there, it's obvious now that the block of cells must have had some sort of calefaction.

But she has to hand it to Hydra, they have _style_ for choosing a sort of stone castle as their base, because it must be a castle, the place looks huge.

 

"I wonder how is she?" She continues the conversation "I hope someone has taken to feed her and remind her to sleep. She gets mighty distracted when doing 'Science' and with that pre-Nobel committe asking about her articles, well… she must be really busy to even remember I'm not there"

 

Her family had each other, but Jane, she had Thor who was constantly on missions and Ian, who had taken to avoid her after that innocent kiss, and she is not very confident on his abbilities as moral support to a rattled scientist, so she is the one she worries most about.

 

"She is not" says Fred without turning "She reported you missing to the police and SHIELD even before the day was out. I'm told even now she and your family keep asking for updates on the case of your disappearance"

 

Darcy feels touched, then, she procceses what the guy has just said.

 

"Woah! Wait a minute, how do you even know that?" She asks them suspiciously.

 

"Hydra has his man everywhere. That speech about the many heads? They are not just words. There are Hydra agents in many places, higher places. Hydra has control of many Institutions on different countries" answers Shuar Hund.

 

Darcy gapes at them and wonders how come noone seems to know of this? If anyone had thought of it they certaintly had not advertised it.

Stupid _sneaky_ evil Hydra.

The conversation dies with that till they lead her to another dready block filled with doors, they stop in front of number 72 and Fred knocks.

 

"I'll see how are you settling in a few days. And we'll see what beer we taste next" Promises Fred, pats her on the shoulder and walks away.

"Call me Emil" says Swarchez Hund, putting her things gently on the floor next to the door and leaving quickly behind Fred "I'll be seeing you"

 

Behind her, the door opens with an ugly creak.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Dental Program thing is a brief reference that will be explained next chapter.


	11. Chapter 11

 

* * *

 

 

11

 

 

Her guide and new roomate is named Allison Brown, she is a brown headed american chemist with a bit of a hard temper, recruited by a cousin of her husband who works in the North-american branch of Hydra. She almost didn't finish her degree, she tells her as they have breakfast in the cafeteria the next morning, she had gotten pregnat and married her 'sweet idiotic boyfriend', had taken a semester to have her baby and her mother, who was the last remaining living relative of both their parents, had gotten terribly sick and as they both were students and part-time workers didn't had enough money for the treatment.

Fortunately she had encountered one of her professors of the Science Department when she had gone to inform of her temporary leave and he had included her in a paid project of his that had a shortage of interns.

With that money they paid her mother's initial treatment, her husband had stayed home to take care of her mother and the baby and she had been able to finish her degree. She had come to Hydra because it was the highest paying job as her mother still needed regular treatments and her husband had an irregular half-time job.

 

"He is a sweetheart" tells Allison about her husband "When it was time to choose who would keep on studying he didn't doubt it should be me. Bob insists even now I am one of the smartest people he knows"

 

Darcy wouldn't contradict Bob on that, Allison was clearly one of those people that lived to do science. Like Jane, she probably wouldn't have copped very well with a science-depraved-life.

And one of those casualities of the world? That professor who had helped her?

Three names, and two don't count.

_Dr. Erick Selvig._

The world sure is such an idiotically small town.

 

"When I heard it was you on the cells and that they were letting you go I volunteered to be your roommate. Any friend of Dr. Selvig is a friend of mine. He didn't had to help me, you know? We had met just a couple of times when he went to give a few lectures at my college. He bothered to ask what was wrong, he cared about it and he helped me when he didn't had to and that is something that I will never forget." she tells Darcy as she shows her the labs after eating, with a soft tone that indicates how clearly fond she is of the man. But she can't blame her, she is very fond of him too.

Darcy sees many familiar faces that wave enthusiastically at her but choose to give her a little space as if unsure of what she will think of them now that she is on the other side of the cell.

What fools they are, her friends, she will show them there is no need of that.

It's weird for her being in a place so foreign and different from the places she has been before, but still with many similarities.

There are almost seventeen divisions in the Science Department that range from a normal Genetics Department to Applied Nannoparticles and many names that Darcy doesn't recognize but knows enough to know she should be weary of whatever they are cooking on their labs by mandate of the Hydra Heads. Darcy is to work with Allison and her fellow chemists on the Department with the ominious name of Chemical Warfare, she just hopes nothing explodes horribly in there because nothing good could ever come from a place with such a name.

 

* * *

 

Darcy discovers early the next day, to her immense happines, that her work is to be sitted in a uncomfortable chair next to the main laboratories and type the experiments and results.

She also discovers, to her utter horror, that the chemists are months behind in reporting their findings as the piles upon piles of bad filled papers, reports, carpets and incomplete charts lay forgotten in various desks, chairs, racks, even the floor. It all seems to have been thrown without a care, filled with stains of different suspicious colors and crumbs of food and pieces of undistinguishable things on them, also, nothing seems to have any order, be it chronologically or by experiment.

Darcy groans, dispairing about her future and puts herself to work.

 

* * *

 

The next couple of weeks Darcy uses them to get the reports up to speed on the internet base of results and getting to know all the scientists of her department due to her having to chase them up and down to get them to fill every incomplete thing and sign every paper that should have been signed and archived months ago.

Dr. Hans meets her when she ambushes him in the hallways at the end of her second week on her new job. She jumps out of the open door she is half-hiding waiting for him. The man lets out a squeak and backs a few steps.

 

"Where have you been?" She demands and the man eyes her up and down, looking dazedly at the cleavage that peaks out of her new outfit, half civillian clothes, half her new Hydra uniform. His mature blue eyes finally focuses on her face and he doesn't seem to recognize her.

"Huh? Whaa? Who are you?" Darcy rolls her eyes at him and points a stack of accusingly unsigned papers at his chest.

"I'm the new secretary of your department, been for a while now, where the heck have you been? This papers should have been signed months ago. You don't have any Microdacyn and Greta has been stealing it from Weaponized Microbiology who retaliated by stealing the little microfilm we had left. You are almost out of Sulphuric acid and I swear Mar and Joel are plotting to make it if they don't get more in a few days. Two refrigerators are leaking, one computer has already died for lack of maintainance and the filter of a laminar flood cabinet is making weird noises. And Maria and Chiara were fighting yesterday quite fiercely for a pen for Thor's sake, because you have not signed the requistion to the almacen for more office supplies!"

"Oh, I didn't?"

"No! Go to your office now, sign these and I'll get it to the right people. What kinda Head Department are you? Running everywhere on the base but your own Department?!" She said, forcefully getting the papers on his hands and pushing him towards their working place.

"No, wait please! Just a few minutes, I… I… I need… a… a something?" He continues babling a few seconds then, frozes.

"Is everything alright?" Says an unmistakable femenine voice next to them.

 

Is a woman and a man, two security guards for sure, making their rounds, both are wearing their helmets but Hans seems to recognize them.

 

"Yeah, mhhm, fine, we are all fine. Both. I mean, yes, nothing is wrong. Just. Work." Answers Hans in a weak voice.

"Keep at it then" she says and keeps going, talking quietly to her partner in russian.

 

After they turn the corner Hans lets out a long sigh and hugs the papers as if seeking comfort.

 

"You are so pathetic" tells him an exasperated Darcy "Let's go, after you fill that I'll give you a few pointers"

 

Hans perks a little at her words.

  

"Really?" He says in a hopeful tone.

"Yeah, come with me"

 

They both walk to the office, Darcy makes it while thinking how to tell the man, firmly, that talking will get him more far with the ladies than stalking the halls ever will.

 

* * *

 

She doesn't just meet the people of her Department but many other scientists too.

The lot of them never stay put on one place, they go to talk to other scientists, they go to other departments to borrow materials, solutions or reports, there is constant movement in the labs, and there is always someone in the labs running some experiment that takes days to finish.

And like Jane, some are weird too.

 

"What are you doing?" She asks the group in the table. They have flasks with different coloured gooey things inside them and little tubes with different coloured moulds or something in them spread all over the table. The group seems to be debating something about colours and drawings.

"We are making art" says one of them. The man is european, with glasses covering his green eyes, his red hair in disray, and he is drinking something.

"If you say so. Is it like, safe, for you to do that?"

"You can see it when we are finished. The growth will take between forty eigth and seventy two hours in the incubator. And we are proffessionals, of course it's safe"

"I mean, your cup" she points at the glass on his hand. She has see them being used in experiments and vaguely remembers having used them herself on her chemistry class in high school.

"It's coffee" he says slowly, as if she should know the answer already and has just lowered her value as a person for inquiring about it.

"Is your flask clean?" She clarifies her question. You always must be specific with your scientists.

"It's a beaker" he says "And of course it is. It's sterilized, obviously"

 

As if trying to make a point, he takes another gulp of the coffee on his beaker.

 

"It's tasty. I'm using a combination of sorbitol and malitol instead of sugar, and powdered goat milk instead of cow milk. Want some?"

"Yes" she says, feeling adventurous "Why not"

 

The man begins to prepare her a beaker with coffee… right next to the group making "art". Still, she accepts the glass when the scientist presents it proudly to her and drinks it.

We all will die eventually of something, won't we?

She smiles, chats with the group for a while and promises to return again.

They coffee _was_ tasty.

 

* * *

 

She continues meeting more people, it seems that now that she is out of the cells and can wander unrestrained in most corners of the base her friends take the challenge of presenting her to everyone they know.

And she means _everyone_.

From the guy that collects the food from the nearby towns and the one that repairs the aerials to some of the more chatty soldiers and the ever elusive field operatives.

She meets some notable people, like Zero (whose name, she is mighty sure, just _can't_ be his real name) the Head of the Information Department in charge of the teachies, a forty something year old man with unkept brown hair that loves to play the Legend of Zelda games on different emulators on his computer. 

Joseph, who is fluent on like nine languages and can write on five more, the operative in charge of the contacts on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, because _of_ _course_ Hydra has control of that institution too.

She meets the Commander Kraken and a couple of his team of operative girls that make her think of Natasha as a child. Her treacherous mind pictures a little redheaded girlscout with a box of cookies in her hands and a knife hidden on her little boot. She would have been weirded out by the man if it wasn't for how he dotes on the girls like a lovingly hard parent. And by doting she means giving them all the tech and the training and the gear they could possibly want. Originally posted on the American base, he is on Darcy's base on a training trip with his girls, and apparently he is an excellent trainer, one of his first operatives, Viper, is in charge of the New York branch.

It's really strange the way Hydra is divided.

There isn't exactly a central head, there are _factions_. One or two bases get together and fight with other branches or bases, and of course other good and evil organizations. But that is politics for you.

She reckons that is the reason why Hydra has never been able to wrestle the power of a country, not to mention the world, they are so worried fighting among themselves that they have never been united to fight against a common enemy. 

If Hydra had ever united together, would they have sized the world a long time ago?

  

* * *

  

She gets along famously well with many of the new people she meets, others, not so much. It doesn't surprise her, there _had_ to be some rotten eggs in an evil terrorist organization.

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Did anyone catch the reference to Bob, Agent of Hydra, Temporary Sidekick of Deadpool? This is a universe where his wife became a chemist instead of a housewife that nags to her husband to get a job. It's a Marvel comic. Also, I metioned Viper and Commader Kraken, others known agents of Hydra.


	12. Chapter 12

 

* * *

 

 

12

 

 

  
"He is not a very nice person" says Mikhail to her.

 

They are both in the group of people watching the brutal fight taking place two floors down in one of the yards. Trough the dirty window they can see how both combatants are fighting quite fiercely and drawing blood.

It's not the bigger guy that seems to be winning the fight, but the other one. She has heard about him, his name is Kaneen, place of origin unknown, an excellent field operative, fights anyone who gives him the littlest of reasons. He has no friends.

Is brutal to watch, but not because of the blood.

 

"Such a waste" she says intentionally, she wants the boy to know these. Growing up in a place like a Hydra base is not healty and as she can't take him from Hydra she will at least show him how the world must be.

"How so?" asks one of the guards in the crowd, he is a mature man, with some wrinkles and grey hair. The helmet is on his left hand, and she knows he must have took it off to watch the figth.

"Well, they are not training or practicing to better their technic. They are not figthing enemies or on a mission. They aren't even releasing stress. They are just, beating the life out of each other. It's a pointless excercise" she answers.

 

Another voice excells among the crowd.

She knows that voice, and she knows the man. 

 

"Aren't they free to 'beat each other out'?" Ask Pyetr quite loudly, attracting attention away fron the fight and into their argument.

 

Almost all the heads turn on them. _Intently_.

 

"Of course they are. But it's senseless and it's hurting them. They could be using that energy, that fierce intent, and redirect it to fix the fence on the north side that the guards asked a few days ago for help to fix it and have yet to get enough helping hands. The food truck was late today so dinner will be served late, if they have energy to fight each other they could have used it to help unload the truck. They..." 

 

There are so many things that they could be doing instead of drawing blood from each other.

She tries to rearrange her thoughts. It's not that they are fighting what frustrates her so, everyone fights. The things is that Hydra, all the _people_ that make up Hydra, all the ones that she has met and all the ones that she has watched in her time in the base... not one of them seems to be truly, really **_happy_**. 

It's as if there is something lacking in their lives. 

And they don't seem to know what it is.

 

"Direction!" she says almost shouting, startling the people closest to her "They need direction"

 

They need direction. A clear goal. Something to pour their all in it and be recognized. 

As there is not true higher authority, there is not one person to congratulate them on a job well done. They never truly _see_ what their efforts bring about. It must make them all feel as if their job has no true meaning

 

"Now, I shall see if I can break this up as nobody is doing something about it"

 

She beams at the group, happy to have reached a conclusion and have a destination. She goes towards the stairs, Mikhail trailing behind her.

She doesn't see the look of wonder the people next to the window throw at her.

She doesn't see the pensive look on Pyetr's face as he looks at the people, then, as he looks at her.

She doesn't see him smile.

 

* * *

 

By the time she arrives at the place of the fight both men are already separated and throwing what seems to be curses at each other in different languages.

 

"Oh, I see you are finished" she says while nearing towards them inspecting the damage on their bodies. Mikhail stays a few cautionary steps behind them eyeing the proceedings with childhood curiosity.

 

Both man look at her then at each other. The tallest, a redhead with short hair lets himself fall to the ground, clearly exhausted, the other leaves swiftly without acknowledging her presence again.

 

"What is it with men wanting to beat the crap out of each other?" she wonders aloud. Then redirects her full attention to the still panting man on the floor "He did a number on you, but you left him with some marks and from what I have heard of the guy that is certainly impressive my friend! Wanna hitch a ride to the infirmary in the Darcy-Mikhail express? Up, up, you go!"

 

The guy seems a little confused (probably a mild concussion?) but seems to understand enough and leaves with them.

By the time Dr. Brandt finishes patching him up, Darcy has already made plans with Viktor to bake cookies in the main kitchen the next weekend to try and recreate the old recipe of his late grandmother Herta.

The woman had raised him as a child, Viktor tells her, when his father has died in a job accident, and as his mother had died in childbirth, his grandmother had been the only constant pillar he had known all his life. Even tough she had been a hard and strict woman til the day her liver finally gave up, it had always warmed his heart the way she would make without fail lebkuchen cookies every weekend, just because they happened to be his favorites.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

That day, Mikhail snitches on her to Dr. Jameson a few hours later. She comes and asks her directly if she thinks is safe to interact so freely with an agent of Viktor's reputation, something about it being bloody and crazy-like.

Darcy answers that it is no less dangerous than interacting with anyone on the base.

The Hydra Base.

The base of the terrorist organization that had _kidnapped_ her.

The Doctor backs off after that and asks her to be careful. Darcy promises to invite her the next weekend if Viktor doesn't mind.

After that she obtains permission from Gretta, one of the head cooks, to use a portion of the kitchen a few hours for a couple of weekends. Reina, who hears about it, snitches on her to her brother Aleksei, who in turn pleads to Nicolá to make her see reason.

With a little bit of awe on his voice, Nicolá asks her how she made Viktor "Beast" Kramer agree to bake _cookies_ with her.

 

"Why Beast? His behavior doesn't scream 'beastly' to me. " she asks. Nicolá answers promptly.

"They say he is a direct descendant of Josef Kramer" he says in a low tone.

 

She stares blankly at him till Nicolá sighs and explains.

 

"Josef Kramer was Commandant of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, a nazi camp, he is remembered as one of the cruelest man of the Nazi regimen. They called him “The Beast of Belsen” because he killed brutally and without remorse. Everyone who knew him was terrified of him. He killed thousands of people and when to death believing he had nothing to fear because he had been in the right"

"He might share his blood" she replies "But he is not his ancestor. We all choose who we want to be". A man nostalgic for the warmth of his grandmother's cookies couldn't be entirely bad.

 

Nicolá insists to be present, and she agrees if he will stay only five minutes and then be on his way. She doesn't want Viktor to feel uncomfortable. 

 

* * *

 

 

After much waiting, the day of baking cookies arrives and passes. It isn't anything like Dr. Jameson feared, nor is as grandiose a Nicolá seemed to expect. At the end, it's just two new acquintances who bond over cookies, music and old childhood histories. 

The first batch is a disaster, the third is edible, after the eight Darcy loses count of the batches and the weekends. 

Gradually, they manage to modify the recipe and bake the cookies as closets to Herta's as Viktor can remember. Whenever he is free, they keep on baking, they make pies, cakes, patties and all kind of sweets. She presents Viktor to some of her friends and acquintances, to Nicolá the first baking day, to Reina and Aleksei one day at breakfast, to Eric the accountant, Mikhail and Gerald who promises to fix his laptop.

He hits it off spectaculary with Agnes, Darcy gives them two months before they begin dating.

It becomes a sort of tradition in the base, to the point that they are always surrounded by their friends and people wanting to help, a couple of groups begin baking on weekends too.

A kind of rift between the fighting force and the administrative and experimental side of Hydra seems to melt and disappear on the air.

And of course, the sweet smell of the desserts entice all kind of people to beg off a scrap. Inevitably, they attract one of the most reluctant individual on the base.

Kaneen.

He enters the kitchen casually on a weekend, with an aloof expression on his face. When everyone stops what they are doing and openly stare at him, he seems to lose a bit of his confidence and scratches his head in a nervous gesture. 

Darcy decides to help him a little.

 

"Come join us" she says.

 

And smiles sweetly and so full of honesty that she can almost hear a chorus of angels and feel a pure light from above shining over them.

He looks at them, not moving, he doesn't leave either so she tries again.

 

"Look" Dacy says, and holds in her hands the plate of the last tray to come out of the oven "We have cookies!"

 

Kaneen sighs tiredly, maybe a little relieved, and joins them at the table, giving in.

 

* * *

 

 

Viktor and Kaneen are not the firsts to fall and fit in nicely with her group of friends. They are also not the last. After them, many others follow.

 

Field agents, engineers, departments heads, security guards, soldiers...

The roughest and hardest to win.

Darcy meets them all head on, barreling through every defense, every rude gesture and word. 

Some, she wins indisputably, almost as easy as breathing once she gets their measure, others, are more harder to crack but fall eventually.

And the ones she knows she definitely doesn't want anywhere near her?

Those she evades, tricks and try to fly under their notice. All her people in Hydra help her in that regard. They too, don't seem to want her near them either. Pyetr in particular becomes a little overprotective and with the surprising help of Nicolá, her first ever Hydra friend all those months ago when she had just arrived at the base, manage to run a great amount of interference.

 

In the background she can feel _something_ is brewing, she doesn't have a name for it yet.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: First, english is not my first language, if anyone see a misspell or something feel free to point it out.  
> Second, is anyone interested on being a Beta? I could use one! Send an Inbox if you are interested!  
> Third, Josef Kramer was a real person, he was hanged for his crimes.
> 
> Based on the popular: "Come to the Dark Side, we have cookies"


	13. Chapter 13

 

* * *

 

 

13

 

 

She is finishing her coffee when a voice right next to her ear startles her, making her jump and throw a little of it on the floor.

"Which one?" Says Pyetr with a little devilish smile. He is holding postals on his hands as if they were playing cards and looks patiently at her, awaiting an answer.

"You want me to choose one?" She clarifies.

"Only one. For now" he replies.

She takes them from his hands and puts them on the table, looking at them carefully. There are postals from the Big Ben of London, a castle that can only be from Japan, a fameous temple from Mexico, that big Jesus statue from Rio de Janeiro, and many more of distant fameous places that she vaguely recognizes only from movies or the internet.

She chooses the Japanese one because the sakura trees of the castle look really pretty.

When she hands it over to Pyetr, he looks at it and hands it back to her. She takes it, and titles her head to the right silently asking what is she supossed to do with it. As if reading her mind Pyetr explains.

"You're supossed to write on it. Put a motivational phrase. A death threat. A love confession or a final wish. Whatever. I'll send it tomorrow to your parents house."

She gapes at him.

Her tears threaten to break free but she holds them off and crushes the man with a hug.

Best news she has had in a long time.

 

* * *

 

 

She writes: "I'm fine. My ipod and taser are fine too. Love you, miss you all."

She hopes her family will know is really her the one who wrote the postal because of the specific words she uses, because she is talking about her taser and ipod. She hopes they can deduce that if she has her ipod she is really fine and not lying and that saying she has her teaser means that she can protect herself.

She hopes they tell Jane.

 

* * *

 

 

The thing about living on a terrorist base?

No matter how careful you are or how much you try to avoid it, eventually, you will meet some of the _real_ terrorists.

A few days after she is released inside the base and begins working on Chemical Warfare, Darcy gets her taser back on dinner. Dr. Jameson, with her bright yellow hair riddled with white strands, gives it back mentioning in passing that it has a few internal modifications but assures her that it works at peak condition.

As the first time her father gave it to her, she keeps it constantly close on the belt of her new uniform. And since being set 'free' (kind of) by Hydra, she keeps the knifes Sonja gave to her on special sheaths on her right tight, provided to her by Emil, who said it was a crime to have such pretty knifes without a sweet place to guard them. Sonja and him are teaching her to use them on saturdays mornings.

When she has one month or something outside her cell, a man corners her alone on her way to work.

He invites her to his bed, and she respectfully declines.

Ok, he tries to grope her telling her she will 'enjoy herself very much'. She stomps hard on his right foot and hits him hard on the throat with her right fist (her dad made sure she could protect herself even before she could talk properly, she knows she can get quite nasty and vicious in a fight, her brothers scars can attest to that), she takes her taser but doesn't use it when she realizes the man is out cold on the floor, probably having hit his head while falling to the ground.

Once on the labs she confesses to Allison and Dr. Hans (who by now has succesfully hold a ten minute conversation at breakfast with Mal, the guard for whom he's been harboring a solid crush for almost two years now) and asks if there will be repercussions.

They fidget a little but answer her.

"Well, it's survival of the fittest in here. Things have been pretty tuned down these past few weeks and the fights and incidents keep declining" says Dr. Hans.

"Commander Raman Petrovich declared the base free zone. It could be said he's been in charge of the base since High Commander Marlout died last year on a confrontation with A.I.M., a kind of rival of Hydra. He holds the sway of the majority of operatives and guards, now second only to your friend Pyetr who has become real popular latetly" continues Allison.

"Free zone? As in anyone can do anything and not get punished?"

"Something like that, yes" answers Allison with a grimace "If you can't survive in here you are not worthy. He uses it as a kind of recruitment and cleanesing. If you are weak, you die. If you are strong and win, you get recruited on his handpicked units"

Dr. Hans interceds then, surely having noticed the appealled expression on her face.

"There are exceptions of course. The scientist division is kind of 'protected', they _do_ need our expertise. Young children and apprentices are mostly left alone, because they would have to respond to their handlers. And well, that man you encountered will most likely get harshly reprimended. Hydra doesn't like their operatives behaving like that, they consider such distractions to be beneath them, and the fact that he lost to someone without training and newly inducted? We'll probably not hear from him for a long while."

"Incidents like these happen rarely, it's most common to find men fighting each other with fists and weapons. But be careful" says Allison "You are new and just showed you can protect yourself, some may take it as a challenge"

Darcy groans and decides to focus on the good news.

"So… what you are basically saying is that if I am attacked can use deadly force with no repercussions whatsoever and that if I want to pound someone to the ground I can do it as long as I win?"

Dr. Hans gapes at her, surely stunned at her concise reasoning. Allison rises her left eyebrow.

She smiles viciously. She doesn't need a verbal answer to know she is right.

 

* * *

 

 

She tases two man before the fight between Viktor and Kaneen that snowballs into cooking weekends. Sporadically, someone or another tries to incite a fight with her.

She kicks all their asses, it's as if they don't really expect or believe that she can pack quite a punch, and that she has no inhibitions whatsoever to use her taser with liberal form.

With everyones help she manages to avoid most of the conflicts, but is one in particular that stops everything…

…and that starts it all.

 

* * *

 

 

The thing is, it happens on a clear and mighty cold Monday day of September.

There are no emergencies or important and big missions and as the weather is cold and is lunch time, the cafeteria is packed with people.

Darcy is at the table with Nicolá and Lee, the chinese apprentice of pharmacist Doctor Hammer, eating a thing made of meat that she has yet to be able to pronounce, still, she thinks her russian and german are coming around quite nicely. If not, at least she has learned a lot of curse words in different languages.

Some man stop at her table.

They are all wearing Hydra uniforms, of the four she recognizes two of them. One is a guy she elbowed in the sternum like a week and some ago. The other is one she has tried _not_ to think about.

"Yes? Can we help you?" She says with a tense smile, wishing they could all leave but knowing how it is going to finish.

"Look at you. Parading all over the place as if you own it. You are nothing but a useless whore who opens her legs to get out of a cell" says the one she elbowed.

Next to her she can practically feel Nicolá growl and stops him with a hand on his arm.

She knows a power play when it stares back at her, should she allow Nicolá to defend her from the beginning she will be perceived as weak, as someone needing to rely on others and on a place as ambiguously dangerous as a terrorist base it will never be good or wise to appear even slightly weak.

"My, my, is that jealously I percive on the tip of your tongue?" She says, in that sugary mocking tone she knows makes her brothers crazy "If you want to open your legs so badly I can search you an excellent doctor that with a few operations can make it possible. Unless... you don't really need the intervention of a knife?" 

The man turns red on the face at the implication of his lack of manhood.

'Point for me' she thinks, and contains her laughter at their unoriginal responses ("You bitch!" "Daughter of a whore!" "Slut").

"Well, what am I supossed to think when you guys come here with that attitud? You are trained and I am just a civilian" she says mockingly with a tone of false sadness "When seen like that is truly pathetic that four of you are needed to confront little old me. How standars have fallen."

"The only attitud we will talk about is yours..."

Darcy stiffens a little but forces herself to breath at a slow rhythm. She knows she is not in her cell anymore, knows her friends won't let her get back there.

"Long time no see, torturer of him. How's it going?" 

She is mighty proud her voice didn't quiver one bit.

The man, Johan, gives a crooked smile like all those times he shocked her o drenched her in water. Could she ever forgive him? She doesn't think so, because while the others were always professional and serious, he was the only one that smiled and laughed whenever she cried out.

"So, so" he says "I have missed our times together. We don't get many prisioners and my instruments miss you too"

"Tought luck. But I see you don't really need me, you have three others friends who can easily pass for a pretty lady"

One of the others guys tries to advance towards her but Johan grabs him by the jacket, stoping him.

"We don't like your attitud and these campaing you have going on. We can't accept that an useless thing like you, that a _newbie_ such as you tries to reach so high above her station. That long haired guy and those friends of yours keep preaching over it."

"What are you talking about?" She asks, wondering about the mental health of the guy, who continues talking over her.

"It's easier now that the branches of the base aren't figthing at every turn. And it was quite clever of you to sway more people to your cause with those cookies weekends. But I demand you stop these nonesense immediatly"

She hears his mouth moving but his words make no sense. What she understands is that a demand has been made to her and she has never taken well to authorities.

"I will do" she says while standing from her seat and, puntuates every word "What I wan to do, when I want it to. You don't like it? Go cry me a river!"

"We will see" he says, then shouts "Nehmen sie die hure!"

His companions spring into action.

A horrid screech of moving chairs and raised voices is heard while the two men jump at the table to be swiflty intercepted by Nicolá, who grabs them by their pants and boots making them trip and fall in a very ugly way. The other rounds the table but in his way towards her is intercepted by the people of the table next to them. She can see Marcel and Samara, a security guard whose passion is dancing and would love to dance tango if only she could find a passable partner, begining to pound the guy with a strong show of power.

In the mass of people she catches a glimpse of Chasen, two tables away, moving towards them, probably to help Nicolá who struggled for almost five seconds before the people closest to their table moved to help him restrain the two.

On these cacophony of movement it was probably very easy for Johan to catch her unaware and hold her brusquely from her long and wavy hair.

It's then that Lee, short and in no way strong Lee, moves in to try and help her. He hits Johan on his arm and is hit in return so hard that Darcy sees him fall to the floor and bounce a little more.

Red blood flows from his face.

And Darcy fills with hot blazing anger. She stops thinking and _moves_ as only she has seen others move.

She moves and gets free, she moves and uses her knife to slash at the surprised man. She moves her body, her arms and feet in armony and dance, evading the attemps of the man to restrain her again. She throws her knife at him, and when he ducks she takes her taser and uses it on the man.

She watches him shake and fall till he stops moving.Then she goes and begins kicking him between his legs, right in his balls.

"You (hit) won't (hit) ever (hit) touch (hit) my (hit) friends (hit) again! Ever! (Another hit)"

 "You hear me? (Hit) You stupid, imbecile (hit, hit) piece of fucking (hit) shit-trash! (Hit)"

She stops hiting him, only because she is dragged off of him by Aleksei and forced to sit on a chair.

In the cafeteria there is silence.

She knows is an approving kind of silence because of the smiles on everyones faces.

In a chair, the only one eating calmly is Pyetr with a self satisfied smiirk on his face.

He raises his glass to her and drinks.

She shows him her middle finger.

 

* * *

 

 

 

The day after that figth she is forcefully escolted from her room by two special agents she has never seen to an office on a part of the castle she has never been at before.

Seating behind an elaborated desk inside the office is an older man she has never met who says his name is...

"...Commander Petrovich. And you are Darcy Lewis."

She doesn't say anything to that, it doesn't sound like a question to her. His shoulders are broad, his chin is squared and despite his age he looks really strong from where she is standing.

"Do you know why you are here?"

"No. I was on a figth yesterday, but I was told the base is a free zone! I was totally in my right to defend myself"

"I am told... many moved to help you"

"What?"

He inclines himself towards his desk, puts his elbows over it and puts his palms together, finger to finger, then he talks again.

"Why did they moved?"

"I, why shouldn't they? They are my friends"

There is a long silence that makes her uncomfortable.

"Hhmm... I wonder" he says finally and no more words leave his mouth.

He reclines on his chair, makes a gesture with his left hand and she is led outside the office.

Totally weirded out by the meeting she doesn't protest when the special agents escort her to her room again. Once inside she is greeted by a worried Allison who wants to know everything and who even admits, full of shame, she called Pyetr (there is no love lost between the two, Darcy reckons is their personalities that clash so very strongly) in case a rescue mission was needed.

Once Pyetr is there she relays the short conversation.

Pyetr says there is nothing to worry about and leaves. Allison stammers a little and leaves hot on his heels with a determinated expression on her face.

Darcy, sick with all of it, decides to sleep early and think the next day.

 

* * *

 

Two weeks later she hears Johan and his friends, still bedridden and full of bruises have been transfered to the base on Brazil. She hopes a venomous serpent bits them.

When she asks Pyetr about it he smiles and doesn't give an answer.

Her future will probably be filled with no answers. Joy.

 

* * *

 

"I think you need more help" says Nicolá one morning at breakfast.

At the table is only the both of them and Mikhail, who has taken to regularly eat at least one meal with them.

"I agree"

Darcy jumps in her seat and surprised, turns a little to see the tall and lean figure of Pyetr seating next to her. She has no idea how the fuck the agent keeps doing that.

"You guys mean, a mini assistaint like Mikhail? I don't think my job is that hard" She replies to the agent.

Pyetr and Nicolá smile widely at her and she has the sudden feeling she has no say in the matter, at all, and that she is missing something particulary important that she should know.

The two begin talking in fast and low russian with a little word here and there of the young man sitting in front of her. Something about 'sila' and 'moshch' whatever that means, and then, Mikhail says something that makes them stop.

"Kulak" he says reverently "Kulak Gydra"

"Eto vozmozhno?" says Nicolá.

The three of them turn almost at the same time to look at her. Bored of the senseless conversation she has began to eat and her mouth is currently full of pasta.

"What?" she says, but it sounds more like a 'Waa?'.

"Eto ne yavlyayetsya nevozmozhnym" says Pyetr to them.

The three seem to reach an agreement and begin talking about others things in english.

Darcy feels like there is something that she really, actually, should know. She just doesn't what that is, yet.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: You guys know that feeling when everyone knows something and you are the only one who doesn't? That's how Darcy feels right know. Only that what she doesn't know is that her minions have began the take over that she doesn't know she is making. 
> 
> These was translated by Google, so is probably wrong, sorry.
> 
> (German) Nehmen sie die hure: Take the whore  
> (Russian) Sila: Force, strenght  
> (Russian) Moshch: Power, might  
> (Russian) Kulak Gydra: Fist of Hydra  
> (Russian) Eto vozmozhno?: Is posible?  
> (Russian) Eto ne yavlyayetsya nevozmozhnym: Is not imposible.
> 
>  
> 
> And... on a side note, the last scene on thr chapter is the second one I ever wrote of this story.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things:
> 
>  
> 
> \- Even if Darcy gets a little training she won't suddenly be able to subdue other agents or super-powered people like Captain America. Training like that requires a level of dedication and commitment that she will never have because Darcy is first and foremost a political being, not a fighter. The self defense that she knows right know is the one I referred to when I said her father had made sure she could protect herself. She might win with surprise and the power of adrenaline, but in a one on one fight with a trained opponent that comes at her with serious intent? She wouldn't stand a chance.
> 
> There are a few things we learned about Darcy from the movies.
> 
> \- You must be someone very brave and confident in you own abilities to go to a completely different state to live. She went from Culver to New Mexico, where she didn't know anyone to live with complete strangers. Not only that she worked as an intern which are paid very little if at all.
> 
> \- Darcy is a girl of action, one that does not freeze in difficult situations. Some people can do that, respond accordingly to the situation, and others must train themselves out of the 'freeze' state. Also, she jokingly mentions knowing CPR in ‘Thor’, she might probably know it. 
> 
> \- In 'Thor' we saw that Darcy was very comfortable using her taser, meaning she had prior experience firing it. 
> 
> \- Also, Darcy doesn't lose her head when she, and then Jane, hits Thor with her car.
> 
> \- Although she is frightened Darcy goes out of her way to help people and even carries a dog to safety when a giant fire breathing alien robot appears out of nowhere to destroy Puente Antiguo. 
> 
> \- And in 'Dark World' when Jane disappears, we see several police cars waiting when she has only been gone for five hours. What did Darcy said to convince the police to send so many cars?
> 
> \- We see her helping Jane and evading flying debris and cars without hesitation.
> 
> \- In my version of this world 'someone' must have taught her to use the taser, gave one to her and taught her not to freeze in hard moments. Ergo, her marine father.
> 
> \- Darcy takes care of Jane, which means she must be used to taking care of someone but she also is spunky, sarcastic with a quick mind. In the first movie she appears a little bit childish while complaining about her iPod which means she might be accustomed to spending time with someone younger. Ergo, her older and younger brothers.
> 
> -She’s been able defend herself against other agents because, as I mentioned, they underestimated her. They only saw a pretty face, and an easygoing personality. Even when they hear about others agents falling for her taser they don't listen and go expecting it to be exceptionally easy to put down the new girl in the neighborhood. As someone new and exotic on a place so isolated from the rest of the world everyone pays attention to her even if only to bully her.
> 
> \- There is something that not many people understand. There are no ‘good’ people or ‘bad’ people, there are only ‘people’. We all want to live and not just survive in this world, we might do good or evil deeds, but at the end of the day? We all just want to get by.
> 
> -Darcy strikes me as the kind of person who could understand this. If you think about it, Darcy has spent years in a college studying political science (If like me, you know political science students or people immersed on a political scene you have an idea how a school full of them might be) and yet, she was able to get along with Jane, a scientist. Then came Thor, a warrior, and they too, seemed fine with each other. She doesn’t seem to have trouble getting along with people from different mindsets than her own. 
> 
> Note: The tense of the story was changed, any opinions about it? Better? Worse? 
> 
> Also: I have a Beta now! How neat is that? (She isn't good with comma rules though, so forgive any mistakes with that!--the Beta)

 

* * *

 

 

14

 

 

 

On the roof of the dining hall, Darcy breathed in the cold morning air. She breathed deep and long. And kept it there until it hurt, until she could feel the cold set inside of her and think of nothing else. Then, she let it go.

“You want one?”

Darcy looked behind her at the older woman. She was obviously getting on years, most of her blond hair disappearing between the ones that had lost all their color. She was shrouded in a thick brown coat and looked old, but most of all, she looked tired.

She extended an open pack of cigarettes to Darcy. It was white with one brown line at the middle and one green at the top1. Probably a German brand of an unknown flavor, Darcy took one anyway and spoke.

“I rarely smoke but Jessie, a friend from college, used to smoke all the time. Eventually I took to smoking for a while.” The woman lit Darcy's cigarette and took another for herself “But when the novelty passed I realized smoking regularly wasn’t for me, now I just smoke when the fancy strikes.”

“And is the fancy striking now?” the woman asked.

“You bet it is! I’m a little stressed.” she answered and took a drag, enjoying the sensation of the tobacco in her system.

“May I ask why?”

 Darcy looked at the woman again taking more careful note this time. Her face bore its share of wrinkles and though her expression was difficult to read she still looked tired.Yet, still strong, like a tree that would bend but refused to break under persistent winds.

Darcy wondered what a woman of her age was doing on a terrorist base.

“I just, I guess it’s starting to sink in. That maybe I might never see my family and friends again. And maybe, by the time I see them I won't be the same person I was then. This life will have changed me.”

“We all change, it’s the rule of life. Everything we do affects us and the ones around us.” the woman said.

“I, I was kidnapped, you know?” she said, clenching her free hand and trying not to crush her cigarette with the other. “It _wasn’t_ pleasant, I still have a couple of nightmares and I won’t be taking a bath anytime soon, but I’m pretty certain it could have been much worse.” She let the seconds pass by, took another drag and continued. “Then, instead of killing me when they realized I knew nothing of use, they let me stay working here. No one has said anything about it but, what will happen when something I don’t want to do is asked of me? Fuck, I want to live. But I also don’t want to become someone else. Someone different from myself. I don’t want to fucking change, I don’t want to be _forced_ to change.”

“Then don’t.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“You _youngsters_. You all either think the world revolves around you or is conspiring against you. But I will tell you simplest of truths: The world doesn’t care about you.”

“Geez, thank you! You are rocking this comforting thing!” Darcy said while rolling her eyes and taking another drag.

The woman waved her free hand dismissing her comment and continued.

“This world, it just _is_. You and me, and your friends and family, and everyone else here and everywhere, we will all die some day. And this world will _still_ be here. The world is not against you nor it is your friend. It just exists alongside us and the only way it can affect us is if we let it, if we allow it. The world and anything on it can _not_ change us. Only we can change ourselves.”

“That's easier said than done.”

The woman nodded. “I never said it was easy. Change or not, it all depends on ourselves.”

“Mhhm. I guess your advice isn't _that_ terrible.”

The woman laughed and offered her hand for a shake. “Aldine Bergmann at your service. You are the new girl in Hans’ Department right?”

They shook hands.

“Yes, Darcy Lewis. Nice to meet you.”

“You will do nicely.”

“Do what?”

“Only time will tell _how_ nicely.”

“What?”

Aldine went towards the door and called over her shoulder.

“Tell Pyetr to come say goodbye to me!”

Darcy was left alone on the roof, exasperated by the woman's mysterious words and certain she missed half of the conversation.

 

* * *

 

“Someday” Darcy promised aloud to herself “I’ll be the one doing the mysterious act. And I’ll let only _confusion_ in my wake.”

  

* * *

 

Darcy tried to go about her days as normal as you can get being a kidnappee forced to work on a terrorist base. But even with the relative normalcy, she couldn’t dismiss the weird days and cryptic conversations she had been privy to. She had a foreboding feeling about it. 

She was gathering some reports on the data base of the department when Luca and Erik entered the lab. They both were on Pyetr’s main team, and they both were trying to get the attention of Maria, one of the chemists.

The clear winner of her affections had yet to be decided.

Personally, Darcy thought the woman was leaning towards Luca. The other day Maria had trusted him to hold some of her samples, that had to mean something, right?

“Guys” she called to them “Have you seen Pyetr?”

Erik stopped to talk to her. Luca ignored her and continued towards Maria’s spot in the labs. In his haste, he tripped with a chair. He stopped his fall with table but threw some books off of it. Embarrassed, he recolected them quickly, muttered an apology and hurried again to the girl. The poor guy had it bad.

“It’s been a few days since we saw him. He’s working on something, I think.” Answered Erik, he was eyeing Luca and Maria’s conversation with a little frown.

“A Hydra-something? Do you know when he will be back? I want to talk to him about a couple of things.”

“Not really, he said to keep an eye on the base. I don’t know what he is doing. Marco said he heard him talking on the phone the other day, he is searching for something. Pyetr didn’t didn’t mention anything to us.”

“Well, thanks anyway Erik." 

“You’re welcome.”

Erik left to join Luca in hovering around Maria.

Darcy took a moment to appreciate his well defined body. As difficult and confusing as her situation was, at least there was no shortage of eye-candy.

 

* * *

 

At lunch two days later, she dragged Nicolá from the food line to her table. Earlier, she had pulled Allison from her experiment, grabbed Jameson from another table and Zero from his office. She watched them fidget guiltily under her glare.

“Do any of you know what is happening on the base right now?”

She is a little worried. Starting a few days ago an increasing amount of activity hummed through the castle. Yet when she asked what was going on, no one gave her a straight answer because apparently no one seemed to really _know_ what was going on.

“I really don’t know, I think?” said Allison.

“You think?”

“I’m not really sure.”

“Pyetr said to be prepared,” interceded Nicolá. “He promoted me to one of his teams, and moved Sonja from Lenard’s division with me. Even Schwarzer Hund was transferred. He said to keep an eye on you.”

“What? Why? Why would you both have to keep an eye on me?”

“He said it was a temporary, till other arrangements could be made. And it isn't just us, it's more like the whole team?” He ended in a questioning tone as if afraid she'd lash out at the revelation.

“How many is the whole team?” She asked, frowning a little.

“Ten, for now. Pyetr said more might join later.”

Darcy gaped at him.

“Isn’t that a little excessive?” asked Jameson, Melina to her friends. Even though she knows her first name now, Darcy keeps calling her ‘Dr. Jameson’ inside her head. Habits are hard to break.

“Pyetr said it was necessary,” answered Nicolá with conviction.

“What’s going on here? Zero? You must know something. You are a Head of a Department. _Spill._ ”

The man looked a little nervous. He put both hands in his hair, tangling it further than normal.

“I don’t really know what is happening. We were given instructions some days ago. Everything has to be in order and up to date. Nothing specific was said. I would think it’s some kind of review but, it’s been a while since we were asked to do something like this.”

“It was a year ago and something right?” said Allison.

At that, Nicolá smiled and it brightened his face.

“What is it?” She hounded him. “You know something!”

“I don’t know anything!” denied Nicolá “If you will excuse me, my lunch time is finished and I have training with Fred.”

He left quickly without touching his food.

 

* * *

 

Some people began arriving after that to help with the ‘inventory’, as it came to be called. They came from other bases _allied_ (in the broadest of terms) with theirs.

Darcy’s base was on the eastern edge of Germany near the border of the Czech Republic and Poland, they recruited from Russia, around Germany, and many other countries. Which explained why German, Russian, and English were some of the most common languages spoken on the base.

Some came from a Russian base, from New York, from Egypt and some even arrived from Canada. Some were techies, some were agents, others were maintenance crew and warehouse workers. In exchange, some of the people from their base were loaned to their bases.

Among many, Chasen went to New York. Agnes, Liah and Jan, all techies, went to eastern Russia. Even Seitan was sent off to Egypt.

 

* * *

 

Darcy met every new arrival, they were all dragged to her by someone or another. They seemed baffled by the attitude of everyone on base.

The new people initially regarded the others with studied suspicion and apprehension. Their attitudes changed to surprise and eventually they grew adorably awkward when they realized they didn't know how to behave among people who didn’t seem to carry any hostility towards them.

 

* * *

 

“So, tomorrow is a baking weekend, there will be cake, cookies, pie, and refreshments. You guys are all invited! We begin baking at seven in the main kitchen of the cafeteria. We used to do it on smaller scale but now almost everyone makes an appearance if only to steal cupcakes.” Darcy informed some of the new agents with a bright smile on her face.

“Baking?” Asked William disconcerted, he was an agent who hailed from the Canadian base. Since his arrival he had claimed Sonja and Emil as his regular sparring partners.

“You don’t like baked goods?” asked Darcy with a slight shrug. “Next weekend will be of food and movies. Some cook dishes from their hometown to share with everyone and we watch movies with a projector in the kitchen. And of course we'll have popcorn and nachos too. The nachos must never be forgotten.” 

“You are allowed to cook and watch movies?” exclaimed Jamal with a hint of betrayal in his voice. He was a young slip of a boy from New York and a new hacker helping in the Information Department. He hit it off with Aleksei, when they weren’t working they could be found wreaking havoc in some corner of the base.

“Well, some months ago it was prohibited” Darcy admitted thoughtfully and then shrugged. “But I guess since everyone began to get along we started bending the rules. No one seemed to have a problem with it and it eventually evolved to a regular event. ‘It hasn't proved detrimental for overall efficiency’ so I'm pretty sure we are cool for now.”

“Non é giusto! Potremo fare così?2” Exclaimed Paolo to his wife Flora, who only shrugged in response. Both were from the Egyptian base. Flora was a distinguished field agent and Paolo was an Italian accountant who was helping in administration. How the couple came to be was anyone’s guess.

“Well, you are welcome to come, I’ll extend the invitation to the new guys.”

Darcy waved and left to search for the others. While she was rounding the corner she heard one question from Rosalie, another Canadian from a different base than William.

“Are we sure this is a _Hydra_ base?”

She smiled.

 

* * *

 

The weekends were a success with the new people.

 

They seemed to enjoy the baked goods: “ _It’s real food! We don’t have food like this at the base!” “Yes, only some weird gooey things they want to pass off as edible food…_ ”

They seemed to like the movie days: “ _It’s the Lion King, I haven’t watched this since I was a little child!_ ”, “ _I haven’t seen this, what is it about?_ ”, “ _You will love it!”,_ “ _Are you crying?_ ”, “ _No! I have something in my eyes, that’s all!_ ”

They seemed to like the people: “ _…I haven’t traveled there, how is it?_ ”, “ _Can you get me the recipe, that pie was delicious._ ”, “ _So you don’t fight with anyone? How does that work? How do you know who is the strongest? How do you choose who will be the captain if you don’t kill the last one?_ ”

They seemed to like the atmosphere: “ _There are actual lights in here!_ ”, “ _Where is the blood? There’s always blood on the floor back at the base._ ”, “ _This is such a tidy place._ ”, “ _It’s weird you know? To be on a base and not hear screams of pain or explosions._ ”

 

Just like the first arrivals, the second batch of new people acclimated themselves extremely well. At the end of the second week, when some of the first arrivals had to return to their base and be replaced by different agents, they seemed pretty down and disappointed to leave.

Darcy reassured them that they would be welcome whenever they returned.

They left with a contemplative look on their faces, and conspiratorial smirks.

She reckoned it probably wouldn't be long before they saw them again.

  

* * *

 

A few days after the first arrivals left with a goodbye party, Darcy found Pyetr walking down a corridor.

It was obvious he had just arrived. His normally neat black hair was tousled, his clothes rumpled and he had dark bags under his eyes. He was talking on the phone, a Russian accent slipping in his voice, clearly displeased with whatever he was hearing.

 

“…needless fight. We have a deal, and you will complete it. Or I’ll make sure not one piece of your sweet daughter and wife will ever be found. Their pained screams will be the only lullaby you will hear for the rest of your miserable life…”

 

On second thought, Darcy said to herself while moving in the opposite direction, she couldn’t even remember why she needed to talk to Pyetr. Whatever she wanted could wait until tomorrow, when the man had rested a bit.

Her steps echoed in the corridor and Pyetr’s voice became a dark and far away whisper.

 

“…Find me the _soldat_. I wa…”

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I’m referring to a real German cigarette brand: http://www.bloomberg.com/ss/10/09/0930_east_german_brands/image/05_f6ciggs.jpg
> 
> 2\. “Non é giusto! Potremo fare così?”: “It’s not fair! Can we do that?”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here is my glorious return after vacationing in Peru (among other things)! Enjoy!

* * *

 

 

15

 

 

 

Darcy was singing ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ in a low voice. By The Beatles, of course. Sadly, a really unappreciated song if anyone asked her. It always made her smile when she imagined Thor thrashing any who spoke against him with Mew Mew and it was real funny when Jane always rolled her eyes whenever she sang it loudly near her.

 

_“Late nights all alone with a test tube. Oh, oh, oh, oh.”_

 

She was gathering papers and checking all over her office for any other report or information that could be hidden or misplaced. Her little chemists had the annoying idea that if she wasn’t in her office whenever they stopped by, they could leave their papers anywhere and it would be the end of that.

 

Only, they didn’t just left them in her tiny metal desk, no. They left them on her revolving chair (she had already sat on four reports and a book), scrambled in the two very tall shelves behind her desk filled with even more papers, inside the drawers of the old cabinet with a bad paint job in the corner, on the floor, behind her door and even inside the potted plant that Hilda, one of the old nurses and whose son Ivan was an active agent on Fred’s team, gave her as a congratulations gift for getting a job and not dying in her cell.

 

When she finally gathered what she thought would need and was maybe twenty minutes in filling the monthly report in the Department’s database, Pyetr leaned silently on her desk. He was clad in a dark bespoke suit, it looked nicely pressed and the bags under his eyes from two days prior had vanished.

 

He gave her a little smile and scooted to cover even more of the papers on her desk, the papers she needed to fill out her report.

 

She raised an eyebrow at him in unspoken question.

 

“I see you are not too terribly busy.” he said lightly at her.

 

“I was. Am. I was busy till you interrupted me.”

 

“As you are not doing anything--…”

 

“But I am!”

 

He continued as though she hadn't interrupted.

 

“--I think is time you take care of the others duties you have been neglecting.”

 

“Eh? What duties?”

 

“Just a little something. Come with me.”

 

He rose from her desk and exited her door as smoothly as he did everything.

 

Darcy sighed and yelled towards the door to the labs. “Pyetr is taking me somewhere! If I don’t come back, please, glare strongly at him in disapproval. Or, I don’t know, avenge me or something!” A grunt was her response, probably Maria’s. She wasn’t sure.

 

She went to the hallway where Pyetr was waiting for her. He led her through the castle hallways without saying one more word. She too, offered him only silence until he led her outside the front grounds and towards a grey Jeep Wangler with a soft top. It was parked against one of the massive castle's outer walls and judging from Pyetr's stride they were going for a drive. Insatiable curiosity crushed her will to continue giving him the silent treatment.

 

“Oh my Thor! Are we like, allowed outside? I mean, me. I thought I was supposed to be like a lil good mindless minion and stay inside at all times? Was I always allowed and didn’t know that? Did you know that?”

 

The agent smiled and motioned for her to get in the passenger seat. When she did and after a few seconds managed to put on her seat belt, he was already wearing dark shades to stave off the morning rays and making the machine come to life. He drove the car, not towards the front of the castle, as she would have hoped if only to take the main road and reach the little country town she had heard about, but towards a corner in the back.

 

It disappointed her a bit that she, who loved to travel, had been on a foreign country for months and had yet to personally see the sights of the land. At least she had been able to take advantage of their trip to London, she had like, three thousands pictures on her laptop.

 

‘Gods, what had happened to her laptop? What had happened to her things?’ she suddenly fretted over it ‘She had awesome things on her apartment that she hadn’t wanted to lose. Probably Shield or Hydra had taken care of it. Maybe Jane had saved her things, if she remembered on time. Or maybe not, knowing Jane.’ She resolved to ask later about it.

 

They took a little road that didn’t seem much used and ventured into the big patch of forest that she had glimpsed on occasion through some of the few windows in the castle.

 

Driving through it, the forest seemed even lusher than she had previously thought. The bushes were full of leaves and the trees were tall, still majorly green despite the current freezing cold and being halfway to autumn.

 

As they passed the foliage she couldn't help but wonder where they were going. The agent hadn't been very forthcoming on that front (Or any front, truthfully, since she met him). Which in Pyetr's language meant he wanted to see what her reaction would be and most certainly deduce hundreds of things about her that she would never know unless the man decided to tell her.

 

They traveled the uneven road for thirty minutes or so when some dark buildings began to be visible among the trees and diminishing foliage. They were painted green and brown, in a military camouflage pattern.

 

When Pyetr turned the jeep towards the buildings the sound of people reached their ears. By this point, Darcy could at least tell when someone was speaking German, or singing it.

 

"Is that some kind of army chant?" She asked her companion, the singing was getting louder. And people in dark uniforms flocked between the camouflaged painted buildings.

 

"Something like that."

 

They stopped and got out of the car. Fascinated, she watched the people doing marching drills, the ones going and coming from the buildings, some groups even seemed to be preparing to go out into the wilderness if the backpacks at their feet or on their backs were any indication.

 

It seemed like a military base but there was no way. Was there?

 

"What's this place? What are we doing here?"

 

"This is our training camp.” answered Pyetr "All of the operatives, agents, guards and those who either desire or require more training come here. For the guards, the requirement is three months before they can begin working for us. For the agents it is a minimum of six months. Operatives take a year of intensive training and missions. After that comes the mandatory two weeks review every year."

 

There had to be hundreds and hundreds of people here.

 

"So, all these guys… "

 

"They are ours, yes"

 

It was the first time Darcy understood the magnitude of Hydra and knew why Captain America and Shield had never been able to destroy them.

 

* * *

 

'What would it take' she wondered 'to neutralize such an organization?'

 

* * *

 

Pyetr called up all the recruits available and introduced her as, "Lewis. Darcy Lewis. The one who from now on will be in charge of your requests."

 

Their piercing looks made her sweat a little because she still didn't know what she was supposed to do here.

 

And Pyetr's words… there was _something_ there…

 

* * *

 

In the end, it wasn’t that complicated.

 

If someone wanted to see a doctor, a dentist appointment, another pair of boots, uniforms, a tent, etc. They must see to their assigned captain who will have to ask for her permission.

 

Something unnecessary, in her opinion.

 

* * *

 

 The days came and went with loyal Hydra agents arriving for the inventory, experiencing life at their base, and leaving as not-so-loyal Hydra agents.

 

She made friends with almost all of the visiting agents and many of the new recruits that were not so jaded in life, the ones who were hurt but still held a glimmer of hope somewhere inside their hearts.

 

According to the recruits Pyetr was considered the General, in charge of the whole training camp. Every two months there would be a ‘test’ and two Colonels would be chosen. Many times, the recruits wouldn’t even know a test was happening until it ended.

 

The two Colonels were each in charge of half of the camp and half of the Captains and their recruits. Normally, there would be between six and fifteen Captains of squad and every squad would have between twenty and forty people depending on the amount of recruits at the camp. Currently there were nine captains and every squad had thirty or so people in it. And these were only the rookies.

 

At three months the ones to be guards would leave the camp and once the recruits reached the six months mark the ones to be agents would be sent to their designated base. It was then that the squads became smaller and the tasks became so much harder because the finality was that every specialized agent or operative would work alone.

 

The camp, the recruits told her, didn’t provide people only to their base but some of the other they were associated with. They called the German base “The Dark Castle”, but she had heard the guards and some scientists refer to it as “The Hydra Castle”. As far as Darcy was concerned, “The Dark Castle” had a nicer ring to it and sounded so much cooler, therefore, it was the name that should be used.

 

Calling it ‘camp’ wasn’t exactly correct. The place was like a miniature city, with cabins, sheds, a diner, a mini hospital, gyms, training grounds and even a shooting range.

 

Every Friday morning she was driven to the recruit’s camp to talk with the captains of squad. Inevitably, many of the recruits flocked to the new friendly face.

 

It was very easy to relate to them. Although her life was never as bad as many of them had had it, she could still sympathize. Boys and men, girls and women, they accepted her into their fold.

 

It was weirdly flattering, for all these people to crave her presence as fiercely as they did, as no one had before.

 

It was saddening, too.

 

Because she knew enough of the world to recognize people who felt they had no options, who thought they had nothing left. And she knew that despair always attracts vultures.

 

* * *

  

And still, she was unable to talk to Pyetr.

 

* * *

  

Some weeks later it finally came, the day when she was allowed to check her Facebook.

 

Since being forcefully inducted into Hydra the only things she could use on her phone were some of the games and a couple of applications. No calls or messages could leave or enter.

 

The Internet was, of course, restricted in the entire base. Only Zero could allow access to it and even then only if he was commanded to.

 

He asked her to accompany him one afternoon to his office. He let her sit at his desk. On his computer, her Facebook page was opened; hundreds of notifications and messages were glowing in red.

 

“I’ll give you thirty, just please don’t write anything,” he said to her in a quiet voice.

 

Darcy held back the tears only for ten seconds or so. In that time, Zero had already fled through the door.

 

* * *

  

There were messages from all her loved ones.

 

The first ones were of the theme of _: "Did your phone die?", "Mom says you haven't answered her texts", "Haven't heard of you in a while, what's up?", "Let's go to a party Darce!", "Yo!!, still alive?"._

 

All the messages began to go up in slightly hysterics notes as the days without an answer carried on.

Even Jane, who almost never used her Facebook, had been sending her inbox messages! They were not daily but they were often enough that Darcy could guess the effort it took her. Jane, of course, had a Facebook thanks to her ever-loyal intern that after a few days convinced her to create it to share her findings to the world. Honestly, it was because Darcy wanted more lives for Candy Crush. Later, she had gotten stuck on level three hundred fifty-something, and had gotten bored on the game when she found a game of zombies.

 

On her personal page, people had put lots of things.

 

Apparently, her family had wrote a post saying she had been offered an unique and exclusive internship in the government of England that would help her boost her career. She was supposed to be traveling and uncommunicative for an indeterminate amount of time. A strict ‘no personal contact’ was one of the clauses of her abrupt and generous contract.

 

(Stupid sneaky little Hydra! Or was it Shield? At this time, she wasn’t sure they were a separate organization.)

 

Only her family and Jane seemed to be aware of her kidnapping, if her personal inbox were any indication and the hundreds of greetings and well wishes on her ‘new’ job. Her family hadn’t even posted anything referring to it on her personal page, or theirs.

 

Her brothers and parents had tagged her on memes and wrote little daily stories on her page, videos and funny pictures, as if they didn't wanted her to lose any moment on their lives. Or maybe, because they had known that if she ever got the chance she would definitely check her Facebook.

 

The last post brought a genuine big smile to her face.

 

Adam, the oldest, had tagged her on a picture of John, her two year old nephew. He was the first baby of the family, a happy little boy, always smiling and playing everywhere.

 

In the picture the boy was extended, asleep on her parents couch (she would recognize that damned blue color her father loved and her mother hated anywhere). And next to him, fluffy and white, was their cat, Strawberry; the last stray collected by Daniel, her youngest brother by two years. He too was asleep.

 

Daniel had found Strawberry in September of last year.

 

Her brother was waiting for the bus when the cat had came from the other side of the road, walking tiredly, slowly. The cat seemed to lose his strength halfway and decided to take a nap at the middle of the street. His panicked brother had initially thought the animal dead, but when he had picked him up from the street the cat had began purring. He had brought him home and the animal had earned everyone's love with his meek and gentle attitude. Really, the cat even let himself be used as pillow or be moved without complaint, the lazy animal!

 

And well, her nephew loved the cat.

 

Whenever his brother brought him up for a visit John would follow the animal through the entire house. And when Adam wanted his son to take a nap, he only had to put the cat next to the boy, make him purr and both would be sleeping like babies within minutes. It was a win-win situation.

 

His brother had wanted to take the cat home but her mother and Daniel had been hesitant the last she had heard, and judging by the picture they had yet to yield because the cat was still at her parent’s house.

 

With a smile, she kept on reading everything she had missed.

 

* * *

  

When Zero returned for her, she was still feeling wonderfully happy and on high spirits.

 

Somehow, in some way, she knew she would get to see her family and friends again. Because she _would_ make it happen.

 

* * *

 

“So, what do you think?” Asked the man. Her compatriot. Her associate. Her friend.

 

“It’s time.” She said, and smiled.

 

They were almost there. They had made it this far, despite all the odds, all the enemies in all the fronts. All their friends, lost.

 

And now, maybe, they would even get to see the fireworks their decision will enact.

 

It would be a beautiful song of chaos.

 

“Let’s play Russian roulette then!” Said her friend, chuckling to himself.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 


	16. Chapter 16

 

16

 

 

Her elbows hurt from resting so long on the hard surface of the cold table but she refused to move them. She didn’t want to lose her flow, if someone dropped a four or a nine she would have a Full House. Darcy wanted a nine. That would give her more chances to win this round, unlike most of the previous ones. They had been playing for hours and she had only won five times.

 

Fred was the one cleaning house. The man had the luck of the devil, or maybe he was just really good at reading people.

 

Or maybe all of them were awful at playing ‘Widow’, the poker game Emil had just taught them. Despite the advantage of being the only one previously acquainted with the game, Emil was losing quite badly and grumbling to himself about being abused by all of them.

 

They were in Dr. Hans’s office next to the chemistry labs; the man had told her that they could stay there when he wasn’t using it.

 

Darcy was happy to report to anyone who would listen, that the shy Doctor had his first date with Mal just two weeks ago. Without Darcy's intervention he'd probably still be stalking the security guard and interrupting her patrolling in the halls.

 

The man never really said what happened. When she asked him about the date, he only answered with a curved smile that it ended with the promise of a second one. The Doctor was over the moon because of it, so it was understandable that even before Darcy finished asking if she could commandeer his office to play games, he was already agreeing to it.

 

First, after the normal work of the day had gone down and the sun had long disappeared under the sky only Allison, Dr. Hans and Darcy had gathered to play cards for a while.

 

It hadn’t taken long for others to realize the new hobby they had taken up. Slowly, they were practically invaded in the office and soon had to acquire more cards to include the new players. One night, Nicolá came draggin Aleksei with him saying the boy had to learn about good card games.

 

Another day, Dr. Jameson and Fred appeared with snacks. Viktor asked to come one afternoon and brought Eric with him (Darcy was real glad the man was making new friends) and a bottle of wine.

 

A day after that, Emil, Sonja and Chasen were waiting for them in Dr. Hans office since before seven. Poor Hans let out a pretty loud girly scream at the sight of them, apparently (he recounted later that night), he had been doing work and hadn’t realized when the heck the agents had come in. Hans and Chasen argued well into the night about that encounter and by the next day were the best of friends. Thought Chasen still occasionally complained his ears hurt because of Hans girlish scream and Hans maintained that Chasen needed to use rubber soles and “would he please shut the hell up about the scream? It han’t been _that_ bad!”.

 

Fortunately, people were conscious about the narrow space and came only in little numbers bringing snacks or something to drink as a peace offering.

 

Sometimes, people went only to watch them play and talked with them well into the night, others became regulars and others came to play only when they were in the mood.

 

Maybe, Darcy thought while still waiting for a nine, she could invite some of the rookies if Pyetr agreed to it.

 

Fred knocked the table twice indicating he finished his play and the next round would be the last of the current game. At the knock, everyone growled out sounds of distress.

 

“Oh, come on! Really?” complained Allison as she exchanged a card from the table they put at the center of the office. Han’s office was big but lacked in furniture probably because the good Doctor never spent much time in it, so till now he never bothered to acquire things to fill up the place.

 

“What do you have? I can’t possibly be losing this badly, I _own_ the Canadian Intelligence! Surely, you must be cheating man?” Said Joseph, he was clutching his cards to his chest and his voice was filled with incredulity. His sharp brown eyes were eyeing Fred’s hand with suspicion.

 

“Pure skill, I assure you all,” replied Fred proudly. He raised his almost empty beer in a gesture of victory and drank from it.

 

“More like Hydra owns them, don’t they?” interjected a curious Darcy while grabbing more peanuts from a cheap plastic bowl in a corner of the table as she had been doing all night.

 

Emil growled something about “Fucking lucky people” and dedicated a few seconds to choose a card to exchange from the table.

 

“Ha! Details! I know they will always listen to me first before anyone else. It’s not like the Lions ever disturb themselves with the little mice!”

 

A moment later the round was finished and everyone showed their hands.

 

When he revealed his cards, Fred was holding the five to nine of spades.

 

“How did you even get a straight flush?” asked Allison, pouting in dissatisfaction.

 

“Wait till you play any game with Pyetr. Then come and complain to me again.” Replied Fred. At this, Allison looked even more depressed.

 

“Where is that man anyway? Lately he is always coming and going in a rush to somewhere.” Asked Joseph. He'd been occupied lately dealing with the Canadian Intelligence and claimed he only stopped to play a few hands to 'stave off the stress of his latest job.' He scratched at the thick sleeve of the gray tactical suit he wore when he arrived this morning. Darcy knew, instead most of the agents at base, he preferred to wear casual clothes whenever he got the chance. Today Joseph seemed too tired to go and change but not so tired to not stop and play with them. One of _those_ days then, she decided.

 

Allison, abysmal at keeping her emotions and facial expressions in check, gave herself away in a few seconds.

 

“Oh my God! You know something! I asked you and you said you knew nothing!” exclaimed Darcy, catching Allison’s guilty expression and pointing an accusing finger at the woman’s face.

 

“I didn’t! Believe me! I just, last time he was here I nagged at him a little until he said something.”

 

Emil gaped at Allison “You _nagged_ at Pyetr?” Allison nodded, looking a little flustered at Emil. Her hands began to fiddle with the edge of her green blouse.

 

“And? What did he say? Is it bad?” After many months of the same routine, watching the entire base in constant change and alert had made Darcy pretty anxious.

 

Something always happened when people suddenly changed their routines.

 

She was usually the first one to know what was going on and it bothered her that she was in the dark now. Before butting heads with Hydra, all her friends and acquaintances used to call her and tell her things, so she was always up to speed with everything on campus, at home or even the city. Her network of people came from every step of the social ladder, and she hoped they still remembered her when she made her way out of this mess.

 

Everyone was watching the chemist intently. She blushed at the attention before answering, her hands never stopped fiddling with her blouse. “He just, he said he was looking into new recruits.”

 

Darcy frowned heavily at this.

 

The explanation was in line with what Nicolá mentioned before, that Pyetr predicted others might later join their team. But Erik had said that Pyetr seemed to be looking for something in particular, not someone.

 

What was the truth, then?

 

She wasn’t an expert but there seemed to be many capable agents at the Dark Castle that could have been added to Pyetr’s new team. And if he wanted someone from another base to come with him she was sure the agent could easily bring them along.

 

The last she was told by Finn (Hedwig's cute, blond cousin who worked in the Financial Department), Pyetr had been taking many flights out of Germany.

 

Which meant that for weeks the agent traveled great distances and battles only to hunt for new recruits and yet no new agents had arrived as a result.

 

She could only conclude that Pyetr had yet to find what he was searching for.

 

After that, their interest in the game waned. They began throwing wild guesses and ideas about the agent’s whereabouts and motives, every one more crazy than the last. When the wine and snacks were finished, they decided to retire for the night.

 

Hopefully, whatever the agent was doing wouldn’t blow up in his stupid face.

 

* * *

 

 

That weekend, as they debated the toppings they planned to put on their last cheesecake, Mikhail went to her and asked a question.

 

“What?” replied Darcy. She wasn’t sure she heard that right.

 

“I said, are we celebrating Christmas, Darcy?”

 

Wide eyed, she blinked at him. Next to her, Emma and Reina seemed equally startled by the question.

 

“I… does it… is it really, almost Christmas?”

 

She knew this; of course, she didn’t need Mikhail to nod enthusiastically at her broken question. Just that morning, she had filled another report with the current date. The fifth of December.

 

She had been a “guest” of Hydra for almost six months now and her family would have to celebrate Christmas without her.

 

Aaaand, _now_ she felt guilty…

 

Fuck, she probably should have visited her family last year instead of buying those boots and the tour to Ireland and Scotland, shouldn't she?

 

In her defense, Darcy hadn’t been sure if she would ever get another opportunity to make the trip.

_Damn it._

 

Mikhail leaned towards her and looked up with his eyes shining and a tentative smile on his face, hoping for a positive response. His years at a shoddy orphanage left their mark and the thirteen year old looked barely ten. For one blinding moment she wanted to snear at the tiny malnourished child because he wasn’t her nephew (And she missed him so much, she missed that little ball of smiles and sunshine, how big he must be now!) but… he was smiling at her. And Mikhail smiled so rarely.

 

She closed her eyes, sighed heavily and reminded herself that the blame solely rested on Hydra (Not the minions of course, they were her friends now. But she could blame the Hydra heads, those, were fair game) and answered the now squirming boy.

 

“Do you guys celebrate Christmas here?”

 

Her question seemed to be the sign for everyone to give their opinion. Mumbles, whispers and loud proclamations sounded through the kitchen.

 

“Never before. We should!”

 

“Really?”

 

“A Christmas tree!”

 

“It’s been such a long time…”

 

“Sure, why not?”

 

The noise was such that they attracted the attention of those waiting at the main cafeteria. The doors were opened with people asking what the fuss was about and soon everyone was chattering about the Christmas celebration.

 

“Ok, I think the people have spoken and we are having ourselves a Christmas party?” She said, but no one was listening, already throwing ideas back and forth about the future festivities.

 

The cheer was palpable in the air. A complete turnabout from her first days on base.

 

Were Darcy green and called The Grinch, she would have felt her heart grow three more sizes.

  

* * *

 

Days later, the first thing Darcy noticed was the garland framing some windows on the second floor. It was big, green and fluffy. It was also so badly lopsided that she couldn't help but stare at it a few seconds longer than necessary. She briefly entertained the idea of telling someone in maintenance to hang it correctly but dismissed it in a second. She didn’t want to diminish the efforts of whoever put the garland up there.

 

After that, she realized someone had been distributing Christmas flowers around the base. Real red poinsettias in pots with soil and not the cheap, plastic ones she usually saw at this time of year.

 

Ornaments and decorations began to clutter the base. Colorful ribbons, tinsel, bells and candy canes hung from high places, knobs and nails, little dolls of Santa, reindeer and elves joined them days later.

 

Christmas trees began to miraculously sprout in the corners of every floor.

 

There were stars hanging from the east windows that shone when the morning light hit them.

 

She saw people wearing their scarves, mittens and hats decorated with holiday themes.

 

Snow globes and nutcrackers materialized overnight on desks and tables.

 

And the lights! A rainbow of warm colorful lights filled the castle, from the doors and ladder handles inside to the trees outside.

 

* * *

 

 

The next weekend before the beginning of movie night they talked about the celebration. There were many people from different countries and religions at the base, and not everyone celebrated the same thing or the same way, they don’t even celebrate on the same day. After an hour and a half of discussion, they decided the main party would be the night of the 24th and the next day there would be games, movies, fun and a dinner for whoever wanted to join.

 

The others who wished to celebrate in their own way were encouraged to do it but to still join the others the 25th of December.

 

Duties and responsibilities were distributed among the most eager participants, which was a surprisingly high number.

 

“Christmas is, after all a time for family and our most precious friends,” Darcy said at the end of the meeting.

 

* * *

 

 

A week and a half before the 24th Darcy and Emma went out for a run. They usually started with a light warm up and then starting from the back of the castle, lapped it four times and finished the last lap in one of the gardens. This day was no exception, but when they rounded the corner in the first lap and reached the front of the castle they stumbled into a crowd of onlookers.

 

It was immediately obvious why they were there.

 

They were watching the _huge ass-fucking tree_ that stood, almost innocently, swaying with the wind at the front of the main gates.

 

“What the heck?” asked Darcy, walking dazedly toward the shining tree and throng of people.

 

“Mister Victor, hey!” called Emma, going toward the mild mannered old man in a grey overall who was in the crowd of excited grinning people talking among themselves. “Do you know anything about this?” She didn't need to clarify what she was asking about.

 

“Good morning girls! And I really don’t know much. I was only asked to help with putting on the lights. Nick might be able to tell you more.” He answered, shrugging his shoulders and pointing at a red faced Nicolá. He stood a few meters away, scratching his blond head and surrounded by three excited girls wearing training uniforms.

 

Both woman walked towards said guy. While Emma distracted the girls, Darcy greeted Nicolá and asked her burning question. “What’s up with the massive, monumental, enormous, colossal, humongous tree in our front gate?” Darcy asked dryly pointing to the impossible to miss tree.

 

He smiled and it transformed his face and posture.

 

For a second, she marveled at the changes in the man. When before he used to walk with a slouch and a bowed head, this morning he stood with his head held high and true confidence in his pose. The smile suited him.

 

“The guys and I thought it was time we had a tree for all of us. It’s pretty, don’t you think?”

 

“It’s fucking marvelous, if a little too big!” She laughed, making him laugh a little in return. “Where did you guys buy a tree this big? It must have cost a fortune! I didn’t even know trees this huge existed!”

 

Nicolá laughed again. This time, there was a strange sound to this laugh.

 

“Well, saying that we bought it might be stretching the truth a little.”

 

She gaped at him.

 

“Did you cut it and bring it here? Where in the hell did you find a forest with trees this huge and how did you transport it? I imagine it would have been extremely difficult and… and…”

 

“Ha, ha, ha, well, there is a funny story to that. We didn’t exactly cut it.”

 

Darcy narrowed her eyes at him and Nicolá shuffled a little nervously but not in a manner that would normally indicate guilt. It was more like a misbehaving child that knew he was in trouble but clearly didn’t understand why.

 

“It was more, a question of logistics, you know?”

 

She stared at him, trying to convey silently how much she _didn’t_ knew.

 

“There was a tree you see, and they weren’t even using it. They had more!”

 

She stared harder.

 

“It was just a little transport, from point A to point B. We didn’t have a tree; the city had more than one. It’s simple mathematics Darcy! They’re not even going to miss it, they had two others!” Nicolá exclaimed, as if all those were perfectly valid reasons to steal a gigantic Christmas tree from some unknown German city.

 

Darcy groaned.

 

Her new friends were proving to be as problematic as the last new friends she made.

 

Yes, her _last_ new friends.

 

Which included a flying ‘I like to rearrange the weather God’ and quirky scientists who loved to chase and poke mysterious holes in the space time continuum.

 

 _Those_ friends.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should have put this chapter some weeks ago but life kind of got in the way. But I'm back now and i hope you like it!


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